Seven years is how long it takes for every cell in your body to change. Not only that, seven years is a long time to pick up new habits, drop old ones, and make drastic changes in one’s attitude and personality.
Seven years ago I woke up to go to work where I was a security guard at a medical clinic. My mother called me, very rare, I don’t think she had ever called me that early before. She told me to turn on the TV, that it was important. She said they are attacking New York city, that they flew airplanes. I couldn’t make out everything she said, but it scared me. Images from Independence Day and Red Dawn flashed through my head.
I woke up my partner and together we watched as the towers caught fire and various news anchors tried to decipher what was happening. I went to work in a daze. I remember everyone was talking about it there, and that hardly any patients came to the clinic that day. Otherwise it was just a storm of emotions, I don’t remember much else from that day.
I was scared, for selfish reasons. I had received my Selective Service card the day before, and I had sat down on my bed and made a decision that even though I had never considered it before, I appreciated this country and would take up arms to defend it if asked. My mind still spins at the coincidence. I had imagined a rogue state, some obviously evil dictator moving in on a small defenseless country and the UN putting together a coalition that the world backed. That was ten years earlier, and that was the first war I saw televised.
I learned a lot in that first month after the attacks. A lot about foreign affairs, geo-political stability, oil. I learned about protocol, about what people do when they think they know better than they do, about how far some people will go to protect their ideas.
Rubbish.
When I think about what had changed I can’t help but think: everything. We live in a country that hates the Executive Branch, despises Congress, and is seemingly apathetic towards the highest courts. I can rattle off a dozen “issues”, half of which only matter to nut cases who have had little exposure to folks outside their small world. And at every turn our so-called Elected Officials make it more difficult for Americans to interact with others on a global scale.
But something stayed the same. I still appreciate this country, and I want to protect it. And I am doing it the way I know how. I am staying healthy, reducing my general footprint, and keeping an eye on the people around me to figure out how I can be helpful and compassionate while staying accountable and considerate. This is a part of my everyday life now, but it is a big change from seven years ago.
I am not one for anniversaries. Time isn’t very significant for me unless it is relative. I don’t care what happened on a day in September in the first year of this century. But I do care about the people and their actions, and how both have changed in the last seven years. We are all new people. What has changed?